Rites of Janus: The educated life and crimes of Dr. Hans Beutelspacher

Authors

  • Oleg Beyda University of Melbourne (Australia).
  • Igor Petrov Independent researcher based in Munich (Germany)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.14.26228

Keywords:

genocide studies, World War II, Russian history, migration studies, Nazi Germany

Abstract

The history that follows will show that the limits of (in)humanity are malleable and readily shifted. Whirled in the chaos of life, ordinary people may suddenly be transformed into monsters, and later, may return calmly to their former nature. It remains unclear why these limits prove so diffuse. Dr. Hans Beutelspacher, whose life story took us ten years to reconstruct, traced this path in both directions, and thus came to embody yet another mystery of the human mind. The possessor of an educated and inventive intelligence, he toyed with monstrous behaviour during World War II, before returning just as effortlessly to his «human» and even benevolent state, later developing a prominent career in the field of soil biochemistry.

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Author Biographies

Oleg Beyda, University of Melbourne (Australia).

Hansen Lecturer in Russian History at the University of Melbourne (Australia). He is a multi-lingual historian focusing on diaspora studies (the first and second waves of migration from Russia after 1917) and World War II in Eastern Europe.

Igor Petrov, Independent researcher based in Munich (Germany)

Independent researcher based in Munich (Germany). His main areas of interest include Russian emigration to Germany prior to, during and after World War II and Soviet collaboration with the Axis powers during World War II.

References

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Published

2023-07-26

How to Cite

Beyda, O., & Petrov, I. (2023). Rites of Janus: The educated life and crimes of Dr. Hans Beutelspacher. Metode Science Studies Journal, (14), 166–177. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.14.26228
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Pieces of science (vol. 14, 2024)

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